Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX), maker of the hepatitis C drug Incivek, has received interest from other companies to collaborate on tests of one of its experimental medicines for the liver disease, Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Leiden said.

The company’s VX-135 pill is one of the last in a class of medicines called nucleotides that may be an important part of combination therapy to treat hepatitis C after setbacks among other drugmakers, Leiden said in an interview yesterday at Vertex’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.